Half Day, Illinois

Half Day is a former unincorporated town in Lake County, Illinois, in the state's northeastern region. It is about 30 miles (48 km) north of downtown Chicago via Milwaukee Avenue.

The town was forcibly annexed by the village of Vernon Hills in 1993. The following month, the village of Lincolnshire also attempted to annex a portion of Half Day. The two villages entered a legal battle, filing lawsuits against each other.[1] Eventually, this resulted in the Vernon Hills annexation being approved and Lincolnshire's being denied.[2]

Parts of area infrastructure are still named for the original unincorporated community. The portion of Illinois Route 22 that passes through is named Half Day Road. Half Day School, originally established in 1839 and temporarily closed in the early 1980s after declining enrollment, was modernized and reopened in 1992; it currently serves third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade students and is part of Lincolnshire-Prairie View School District 103.

Half Day appeared in a news article in 1952 when then Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson flew there to vote in the presidential election (Stevenson was a candidate the same year).[3]

Nomenclature

Many people believe the settlement was named Half Day because of a belief that Half Day was a half day's distance from Chicago by horse and carriage. In reality, the area was actually named after Potawatomi Chief Aptakisic. Differing accounts are given for the connection of Aptakisic to Half Day: One explanation states his name was translated to English alternately as meaning "Center of the Sky", "Sun At Meridian", or "Half Day" (meaning the position of the sun in the sky at noon).[4] Another, similar explanation states the name was anglicized as "Hefda" but a cartographer erroneously spelled it "Half Day", and the misnomer stuck.[5][6][7][8]

References
  1. Callahan, Patricia (August 24, 1995). "Half Day Turns Into Boardwalk: Two towns in court over annexation". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved July 28, 2010.
  2. Abbinanti, A. (December 12, 1996). "Vernon Hills retains its title to Half Day". Vernon Hills Review.
  3. "Stevenson Casts His Vote at Tiny Half Day, Illinois". The Spokesman-Review. November 5, 1952. Retrieved July 28, 2010.
  4. staff. "Chief Half Day: A Friend to Northern Illinois Settlers". www.tiu.edu. Retrieved June 21, 2023.
  5. Richard A. Thompson (1985). "DuPage Roots". History of DuPage County. County of DuPage, Illinois. Retrieved September 11, 2008.
  6. "Early Chicago", based on A Compendium of the Early History of Chicago to the Year 1835, When the Indians Left (2000).
  7. Village of Lincolnshire (2006). "Village History". Retrieved October 20, 2006.
  8. Diana Dretske (2011). "Half Day- Aptakisic". Retrieved July 31, 2014.


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